


it's fine even if the story sounds like a dream

by DramaticalHearts (kusokawaii)



Category: Dr. STONE (Anime), Dr. STONE (Manga)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Discord: The Kingdom of Shipping (Dr. STONE), During Canon, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Introspection, M/M, Near Death Experiences
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:47:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25554556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kusokawaii/pseuds/DramaticalHearts
Summary: [Spoilers up to manga chapter 141]Dying, in and of itself, didn't scare Senku. He trusted in his friends. They would figure out his plan, and he would be back in no time. He was a scientist — he knew that he would either experience nothing in-between his death and revival, or at least nothing of any meaning.But what happens when a scientist sees and experiences something that he cannot explain away so easily? Something his instincts, his heart, tell him is true, even while his mind is in disarray?Senku is a pro at burying his truest feelings, and he'll keep this buried for as long as he can.There's just too much to do.[General fic, with hints of Senku/Tsukasa]
Relationships: Ishigami Byakuya & Ishigami Senkuu, Ishigami Senkuu/Shishiou Tsukasa
Comments: 4
Kudos: 61





	it's fine even if the story sounds like a dream

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!! It's been a while! I've really missed writing ;;  
> I absolutely love Dr. Stone, and after catching up with the manga and reading some fics, an idea came into my head that just about set my writing fingers aflame.  
> This is written in a second-person POV, a POV I've recently come to like writing in. I don't think I'll be switching to that POV for /every/ fic from now on though, just when the story calls for it.  
> I hope you'll enjoy this story as much I did writing it!
> 
> Many thanks to [coolangelsthesis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/coolangelsthesis/pseuds/coolangelsthesis) for beta-reading this for me!! <3

  
You weren’t afraid of death. You were ten billion percent confident in your assessment of your plan — your friends would figure it out. You would return from death with their assistance.

That one-percent chance, though, that they wouldn’t, or that Tsukasa’s strike would be off just slightly — that’s all that scared you. You weren’t afraid of dying, in and of itself, but it would definitely be a pain in the ass at this point. You weren’t finished in this world, not by a long shot. There was too much left to do, too much that only _you_ could do.

So, yeah, dying permanently would’ve just pissed you off.

If there still was a _you_ to piss off, anyway.

Dying itself didn’t scare you, because you never really bought into the notions of near-death experiences or life after death. Science back in your time hadn’t unequivocally proven these things, after all — anecdotes were all anyone had. Which certainly wasn’t enough for you, you who tested and experimented and tried everything to figure out the truth of your world as you knew it. And you certainly couldn’t test those theories on your own, or with anyone else really — you would’ve never heard the end of it from Byakuya if you had been able to.

Well… now you had your chance, huh?

To conduct an experiment that no one back in your old world dared to try.

_How exciting.  
  
_

* * *

_  
Thump._

The hard, forceful beat of your heart is the first thing you feel in your body, as though it were angered at having been stilled for so long.

 _Likely from having too much blood backed up in it,_ your mind supplies automatically. Your first conscious thought.

It continues to race, making up for lost time, and your mind cleared further.

You can hear the rain.

Your friends’ voices.

_Good, my brain wasn’t deprived of oxygen for too long._

Your chest feels sore, meaning that your prediction of Taiju attempting chest compressions on you was accurate. You don’t feel an uncomfortable dampness on your mouth, so he likely stopped short of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, to your immediate relief.

(Being sloppily kissed while unconscious would not only have been unappealing, but wholly unnecessary — mouth-to-mouth had been proven to be mostly a waste of time some three-thousand-seven-hundred-odd years ago)

Without thinking, you answer a question of theirs, which they immediately respond to before realizing who had spoken it. They whirl then, and immediately cry out in joy, practically smothering you in affection.

Beyond your immediate worry of ‘ _Tsukasa might hear us’,_ there’s something that resides at the back of your mind. Something that troubles you. Something that felt like a dream, but was very different. Something you couldn’t shake.

You don’t have time to dwell on it though, so as you run away and then part ways with your dear friends, you shove it down.

There is too much to do.  
  


* * *

  
When Ruri asks you if your last name is Ishigami, in a village where last names don’t exist, the world feels as though it stood still. Your heart skips a beat, your mind processing several things in a flash.

As she’s leading you to his grave — Byakuya’s grave — your barely-contained emotions are a mess. You manage to hold it together long enough, and soon after she shows you his gravestone, you ask to be left alone. She understood, and after she walked away, your emotions came forth, unbarred.

You aren’t sure what brings tears to your eyes first — seeing the reality in front of you… or that a part of you had already known it, long before you had arrived at this village.

Moon and starlight stream down from the opening in the surrounding forest, bathing you and the grave in their glow. You compose yourself enough to thank your father for his gifts to you from across the ages, but remain rooted to the spot. This liminal space draws you in, and for a moment, you let it.  
  
This moment, this stillness, the way everything seems to glow, belongs to you and him, and the universe you both dwelled within. You forgive yourself for stopping to take it in.  
  


* * *

  
After the proposal of Gen’s deceptive plan to win over Tsukasa’s army, you can’t help but chuckle.

“Hell, eh? You believe in that, Gen?” you say with a wry smirk.

“You mean you don’t?” Gen smirks back.

“I have a vague concept of it. It’s nothing but mythology to me.”  
  
“Ah. Well, my parents were Catholic, you see.”

“You don’t say. I didn’t think there were many of them in Japan.”

“There weren’t, but my parents managed to find a tiny community of them regardless,” Gen shrugs. “While I never adopted the faith, much to my parents’ grief, I gained what many current and former followers call ‘Catholic guilt’.”

“And that is?”

“A fear of Hell, basically. From being sinful.”  
  
“You must be in constant fear, then.”

Gen laughs. “Not as much as you would think, Senku-chan!” he smiles. “I can justify most of the things I do. It’s just that this is a particularly nasty lie. I can’t help but feel a bit dirty about it.”

“Does that mean _you_ believe Hell exists?”

Gen pauses briefly. “...Part of me does, I suppose. Not very logical, I know.”

“Not one millimeter of my business,” you respond. You really don’t care what other people believe, so long as they trust in science. “What made you decide not to be Catholic?” you ask out of curiosity, as you tinker with the phone.

“Adolescence,” Gen answers simply. “Well, to be specific… when I started questioning things. And realized I was attracted to other boys.”

“...That’ll happen.”

A smile grows on Gen’s face — a slightly more genuine one. “Your mild reaction pleases me, Senku-chan.”

“Being attracted to the same sex isn’t a big deal. It’s religions that make it one,” you answer. “And bigots.”

Gen chuckles. “You’ve got that right.”

“Is that the same time you started to become a mentalist?”

“Around middle school, yes. I wanted to know why people believed what they believed, what makes them do certain things, and how to make them believe and act differently. Given the love of magic I already had from childhood, the two clicked rather beautifully. Not that my parents approved at first, but they couldn’t complain about the book deal and TV appearances,” Gen says with a devious smirk.

“It always comes down to money, huh,” you say, closing the cabinet of the phone firmly.

“I get the impression that this conversation didn’t take the direction you thought it would, Senku-chan.”  
  
You look up at Gen. “Hm?”

“Is there something bothering you? You’ll have difficulty hiding it from me, you know,” Gen smirks.

 _Damn this mentalist._ “Not at all. Just making pointless conversation.”

“Hm. Very well, then-”

“HEY WHAT’S GOING ON-!”  
  
You’re relieved at the interruption by an eavesdropping Chrome that brought this awkward discussion to an end.

 _Gen is likely too hung up on preconceived notions to discuss this with,_ you decide. _But… who else could I talk to about it?_

You push it down again.  
  


* * *

  
This is a longshot. A gamble. Bigger than anything you had partaken in since your depetrification.

You _had_ considered reviving a surgeon — your crew had just found the remains of a hospital, after all. But you quickly dismissed it — the supplies that a surgeon from his time needed and was accustomed to using, and the drugs needed for a surgical procedure, would take time to remake and acquire. Time Tsukasa didn’t have.

(Not to mention the need for thorough sterilization, which would still be difficult to pull off in this stone world)

So you had an idea.

An absolutely outlandish, harebrained idea.

But, if it worked? It would save Tsukasa for sure. Ten billion percent.

And if it didn’t?

Well… the chances of that were far from one percent.

Your mind can’t help but wander to that, as the grim task is at hand. Tsukasa has lost consciousness, you having talked with him as long as you possibly could, a way of making up for time lost to treating each other as enemies. Tears threatening to fall from your eyes, you make your way over to him, touch his neck with a gentle press to find his carotid — he has a pulse, still, but it’s weakening and slowing.

It’s time.

As you move to place him in the freezer of your own making, you find that while you were physically prepared — all supplies and machinery were ready and working — you weren’t quite so mentally. There had been little time to process your emotions, after all — there was too much to do.

You only pay mind to the tears streaming down your face when their tracks chill in the cold air emitted from the freezer as you position Tsukasa’s form. You find yourself taking care in placing his hands just so, and running your fingers through his long hair to fix and straighten it, without really knowing why.

You straighten to look down at him. His eyes are still closed, him looking very much like some sort of princess lying there, Snow White waiting for her awakening.

He’s _too_ beautiful.

 _Damn him,_ you smirk to yourself, almost wishing Tsukasa were still conscious so he could hear your remark and laugh.

At that thought, you feel a pang in your chest, and more tears sprang forth — you were thankful to be alone right now.

This wasn’t like when you had experimented with your own life — there are too many factors at play to know for sure whether this would work or not. Tsukasa has no remaining stone on him for you to depetrify. Repetrification would be needed for your plan-- something you didn’t know how to do yet. And even if you learned how to do it… could it really bring back someone who had already died?

You know of the harmful effects that ice crystals have on the human body, their sharp edges damaging cells and the connections between neurons. It was why cryonics ultimately failed, back in your time. Could petrification really heal it all, _and_ bring Tsukasa back from the dead?

That isn’t even including your trip. Would the freezer keep working while you’re away at sea? What if something befalls you on the way? … Then Tsukasa would never wake up.

There are _way_ too many if’s and unknowns for your comfort. Too much that’s out of your own control.

With a heavy heart and still-damp eyes, you reach for Tsukasa’s cheek and gently stroke it with your fingers.

You speak, knowing he could hear you no longer.

“Tsukasa. Wait for me, alright? Don’t you leave me now.”

You sniff loudly, clearing your congested nose.

_Crying is so damn annoying…_

You place your palm on his cheek then. “I’ll see you soon.”

_Either way… I’ll see you soon._

You close the freezer, and in that moment, you finally understand…

...why some people pray.  
  


* * *

  
The sea breeze is cold and bracing, but beckoning all the same. You walk to the end of the dock, at the very tip of the Perseus, and look out to the sea beyond.

“So, what’s our situation?”

You look back, and Tsukasa is striding toward you.

You had revived him successfully, with the petrification device you found on the island that your father had inhabited so long ago. You still didn’t entirely know the why’s and how’s of it — that’s why you’re on this new journey now — but you were so overjoyed at Tsukasa’s revival, the absolute best outcome you could have predicted, that you nearly cried in front of everyone. It was only Tsukasa’s level-headed first words that grounded you.

You smile and look out to the ocean again, answering Tsukasa’s question. “Nothing much. Just wanted to talk with you.”

“More pointless conversation?” Tsukasa says with a soft smile as he moves to stand beside you, leaning on the bow.

“Something like that.”

You had asked him to come out to the bow of the ship with you, late at night when everyone else was asleep, but now that he was here, you had trouble finding the words you wanted to say.

You decide to be blunt, as always. “Tsukasa… do you remember anything from before I revived you?”

Tsukasa’s eyes widen in surprise. “That’s an odd question.”

“Just answer it. Honestly.”

Unfortunately for you, Tsukasa could be just as blunt. “Are you asking if I remember being dead?”

You turn to fix him with a look, red eyes meeting brown. You have to force your words out. “I am.”

“Ah. Mm. Right,” Tsukasa says, then pauses. “...I wasn’t suffering, or in any pain. You needn’t worry about that, Senku. You did the right thing.”

“I appreciate that, I really do,” you say. Then you shake your head. “But that isn’t why I’m asking.”

Tsukasa crosses his arms, his lips pursed. “Why, then?”

You sigh through your nose, not wanting to say any more, hoping the other man will catch your drift eventually.

Tsukasa does think about it, and then: “Are you asking… if I had a near-death experience?”

Words catch in your throat, so you simply nod. “Mm.”

Tsukasa stares out to the ocean. “Mm. I do remember something… but, I’m not sure if you’d take it seriously.”

“I’m not here to judge. I just want to know what you saw, and felt,” you say in a small voice.

“Well… I remember the moment I died. I felt… separate from my body somehow. I wasn’t in pain anymore. I felt… peaceful.”

“What else?”

“I could see you… I wanted to talk to you, but I couldn’t. Then, I felt as though I had entered a dark tunnel… But there was light at the end of it. I went toward it, and when I reached it…” Tsukasa sighs then.

You raised your head. “What?”

“...I felt something I’ve never felt before. I felt… loved and accepted, unconditionally, intensely so. More… than I felt worthy of. Mm.” There’s a sadness in Tsukasa’s eyes that you can’t reach. The regret he still feels for his actions, despite your forgiveness of them.

“There was someone there. I remember saying to them that this was kinder than I deserved, and they just smiled. Said that I deserved that and more — that everyone does. It felt true, but, I still have a hard time believing it…”

Tsukasa looked up. “I told them that I wasn’t there to stay, that I was waiting to come back here. They understood, and said that I still had more to do in life, so I could stay there as long as I needed to.”

“What did it look like?”

“It was… bright. Colorful. I remember… flowers. I sat on a bench, surrounded by flowers. I waited there, and I felt at peace. When the time came, someone came to let me know, and I slipped backward, back to my body here. Nothing about it was traumatizing or violent.”

“Who was the person you talked to?” you asked, your mouth dry.

“...My grandfather.” Tsukasa replied. “He passed away when I was a child.”

You swallow hard. Your hands grip the wood of the bow.

“I never thought I’d talk about this… not to you, at least,” Tsukasa says. “It’s not very scientific.”

“Tsukasa,” you say, and he looks at you again.

You don’t meet his eyes, your hands gripping the wood of the bow harder, your nails digging into it. “I saw something, too. When… I died.”

Tsukasa moves closer to you. “Have you told anyone?” he said in a lowered voice.

You shake your head. “Never.”

“Tell me. I want to hear it.”

You let out a shuddering sigh. A story you thought you’d take to your grave began to spill from your lips…  
  


* * *

_  
Alright, so I’m dead._

You looked down at yourself.

_Feeling of detachment from my body? Check._

_Lack of pain? Check._

_What else? Hm._

_Nothing, probably._

Just like that, darkness swathed you.

_Ah, there we go._

But then -- light.

_Hm? Light, huh? Might as well go to it. Got nothing better to do right now._

You head for the light, and it soon enveloped you.

_This feels… good? This must not be Hell then, I guess. If there is such a thing._

You look around yourself, and find you’re standing in a bright, peaceful place — a garden in full bloom.

_Impressive. The human brain is an amazing thing, huh. Even while dying, it can come up with sights and feelings like this._

“Senku?!”

“Mh?”

You turn, and there-

“...Byakuya?”

“Senku!!”

Byakuya Ishigami — your father — ran up to you, wearing that same broad smile on his face he always had when you entered a room. His smile then faltered. “What are you doing here?! You shouldn’t scare your old man like that!!” He slumped over, his face bearing the same weary expression it had when you did something that tested his unlimited patience with you (which was often).

_Another hallucination, I guess? But, why him?_

“Relax, I’m not here to stay. I’ll be going back soon,” you say, picking your ear out of habit.

Byakuya’s smile returns. “That’s good. I guess this is part of some kind of plan of yours, huh? Wait, you don’t have to explain,” he said, waving his hands. “I’m just… so happy to see you again, Senku.”  
  
“Don’t make this weird…”

Byakuya laughed. “That’s my Senku!” He became a little more serious then. “I’m guessing we don’t have much time, huh?”

“If all goes according to plan, no.”

“Then I’ll be brief.” Byakuya straightens. “I couldn’t be prouder of you, Senku. I knew you would break out of that stone someday, _and_ figure out how to free everyone else.”

 _This feels… too real._ “Well, I’m not done yet, not even by a millimeter.”

“I know that, and I’d better not see you back here until you’ve done everything, and then some more!” Byakuya scolded with a gentle smile.

_Ah, I feel something. Pulling?_

Byakuya noticed, and started moving to keep up with you. “I believe in you, Senku! I always have!” he called. “I left you a bunch of exciting things to find!”

Something clicked for you a moment too late. You reach out to him, and his hand reaches out too—

Your hands meet, colliding together in a high-five gesture, before you’re pulled away faster by a force you don’t know of.

“I love you Sen—”

Byakuya’s voice disappears.  
  


* * *

  
“...Then it was dark again, and I felt my heart start beating.”

A span of silence passed after you finished recounting your story, a silence you were thankful for — reminiscing about it left you feeling raw and vulnerable like little else did, and speaking it aloud for the first time magnified those feelings two-fold.

You swallow, suddenly feeling a lump in your throat.

“...Mm,” Tsukasa said, breaking the silence. “How do you feel about what you saw?”

You don’t know how to answer that. “...Conflicted.”

“How so?”

You let out a ragged sigh.

“I’m a scientist. I know that there’s a natural explanation for everything that happens. I thought I knew what to expect when I died. Most people generally see the same things, things brought about by changes in the brain, varying by whatever culture or religion they were raised in. I _knew_ this. I half-expected to see Hell,” you say with a dry laugh. “I figured that’s where most scientists would go, for daring to question the universe. But I guess not.”

You look down at the waves of water lapping at the ship. “And if I saw anyone, I thought it would be some old dead scientist. Albert Einstein, Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking... Any of them would’ve made sense. But why… did I see my father?” You close your eyes. “I didn’t even know at the time… I didn’t know he was already dead.” You swallow again. “I thought there was a _chance_ of that, but I didn’t know how far the petrification beam’s reach went, either. Or if the beam went off a second time. It wasn’t likely, but… part of me hoped that he had been petrified too. So that all I had to do was find him again. He was annoying and embarrassing as hell, but… I wanted to see him again. I wanted to hear what it was like in space...”

“And you saw him.”

You shake your head. “I didn’t understand it. I thought it was just something strange my brain cooked up in the midst of my death. I played along, but I was… indifferent to him. Like he was a figment of my imagination. But when he said something about leaving things for me to find… that didn’t make sense, if it was just my imagination. I hadn’t thought that far…”

“And that’s when you reached for him.”

That high-five of sorts — you’ve done it with so many of your partners in science by now. A simple, wordless gesture, of cooperation, of passing the baton. Had that gesture originated from that very moment? Thinking about that made you feel restless. You’ve never really _thought_ about it at all, when you’ve done it; you just did it. It didn’t mean anything more than that, right?

“It was total instinct, it didn’t make sense. It said, ‘This is him, not an illusion’. And I followed that feeling.” You rubbed circles into the wood with your thumb. “When I woke up, I didn’t know what to think. But there wasn’t time to think about it.” You smirk then. “I had _you_ to worry about, after all.”

Tsukasa grimaces. “Mm. Right.”

“But it was always at the back of my mind… sometimes I dreamed about it. I just tried not to think about it, and focus on everything I was making with science, one thing after another, after another…” You look up at the clear sky, its stars twinkling. “Then I found out about Ishigami village, and saw his grave… and, everything started making sense.” You smile, though your eyes are starting to blur. “The hundred tales. The record. The Soyuz treasure chest, too… he really did leave me exciting things.”

Tsukasa stares at you. “Senku…”

You realize then that a tear has streamed down your face. You turn your head so it’s just out of view, closing your eyes to keep any more from coming out.

“It’s absurd, but as a scientist, it would be foolish to deny the obvious when it’s right in front of me. That… that was him. Whatever was left of him. I saw him again… and I didn’t believe it until it was too late. That was the last time I saw him, and I treated it like it was nothing…”

You let out a bitter laugh that turned into a hiccup, the ache in your chest unable to be restrained any longer — before you know it, you’ve let out a sob. “Shit,” you say, trying to recompose yourself, but failing.

Warm arms envelop you, pulling you close.

“Tsukasa, no-” you say, struggling. “Don’t look at me, dammit…”

“Sorry,” Tsukasa says, pulling you closer to him.

You’ve hiccuped out another sob, but you’ll play your tough, bratty act as long as you can. “I’m not your little sister...” you pout.

“You’ll have to forgive me, then. She’s the only experience I have in comforting someone.”

“Stupid… Tsukasa…” you say, another sob leaking out as you vainly hit Tsukasa’s firm chest with your fist.  
  
“Just let it out. I’ll try my best to muffle it so no one else will hear.”

Tsukasa rubs your back, and it feels like a dam has broken. “Dammit…”

Your small (in comparison to Tsukasa’s) frame shakes with your sobs, Tsukasa absorbing them all as he rubbed your back soothingly. The only other sounds that reach your ears are the ocean waves, and the strong, steady beating of Tsukasa’s heart. The latter soothes you — both on a primal human level, and in the implicit reminder that Tsukasa is _here_ and _alive_ because of _you._

You’ll never admit it, but his embrace was just what you needed.

When your sobs slow, Tsukasa speaks up.

“What was your father like?”

You take a breath, lifting your head from Tsukasa’s chest, and tell him everything. How Byakuya had supported your dreams of studying science and going to space, how you had supported his dream of becoming an astronaut in turn. How he had always encouraged you and believed in you, even if you found it embarrassing. How he was all those things, despite not being related by blood. That didn’t matter to him, nor to you.

“Mm. You’re lucky, having a father like that.”

“What was yours like?”

Tsukasa sighs. “He was... a violent drunk, and a gambler. He wasn’t good to our mother, either. And then he left us. My sister was diagnosed soon after… my mother had to take on so much. Mm. That’s what led me to professional fighting. I hated watching her and Mirai fighting so hard on their own, feeling so helpless… I had to do something.”

“Ah. I’m sorry to hear that,” you say. “Was his statue one of the ones you smashed?”

“...His was the first one I smashed.”

You can’t help the gasp that you make. You remembered the story he told, long ago… of the drunken fisherman who had beaten a young Tsukasa senseless for gathering seashells for his little sister, on the beach he claimed as his own. The seeming origin of Tsukasa’s rage against older generations.

“...I see. I guess I can understand your reasons, even if I don’t agree with them,” you say evenly. “If we find him again, we’ll decide what to do with him.”

“You still won’t let me smash him, will you,” Tsukasa states flatly.

“No, but we’ll figure something out. You’ll probably have a lot to say to him, after all this time.”

“Senku.”

“Mm?” you say, before Tsukasa leans down. You feel his breath near your ear.

“I think your father understood. Mm. He knew you better than anyone, so he probably expected you to react the way you did. I don’t think you hurt him at all. He was probably happy, getting to see you, to tell you those things, and that you realized it at the last moments… Mm. I think you made him happy, Senku.”

Your breath hitches again. _Dammit. I’d almost stopped thinking about it, too._ “You’re probably right. It just feels like a waste, though… I saw him again, after three-thousand-seven-hundred years, and I blew it...”

“You’ll see him again,” Tsukasa says, holding you tighter again. “Mm. When your days here are over, he’ll be waiting for you.”

“You really believe in this stuff, don’t you, Tsukasa,” you say, pulling away, sniffing and wiping your tears.

Tsukasa was silent for a moment. “...You haven’t been where I’ve been. Standing at the bedside of a loved one, in a hospital, not knowing if they’ll live another day, or week, or month…” Tsukasa’s eyes are distant again. “Have you?”

“No,” you shake your head. “I’ve nearly put _myself_ in the hospital with my experiments, but I’ve never been through that.”

“You’re fortunate. It changes you, watching someone you love go through that, hoping against all odds that you and them can go back to the way you once were again… Mm. People talk, in the hospital. Strangers passing through; my mother’s friends, too. They talk of prayer, of near-death experiences, of death not being the end. They would pass along stories and books, stories that stayed with me, and books I’d read at Mirai’s bedside while she slept. I wanted her to live, of course, but when my thoughts would turn dark, those stories comforted me, kept me from falling into despair… Mm.”

“Ah. Those things do have value, huh,” you say. “I remember hearing about studies back in our time, of how meditation and prayer had beneficial health effects like quicker recovery times, likely due to the calm focusing those practices instill. It’s not a bad thing at all, as long as you still trust in science.” You look down. “I just... never thought I’d entertain the idea of an afterlife. I thought death was the end, and everything else was just the by-product of a dying brain. If I entertain the thought that it _is_ real… how can I reconcile that? As a scientist?”

“Well… the petrification was like something out of a fantasy story, wasn’t it? But you took it seriously, and you figured it out.”

“Well, yeah. I had the cold, hard reality in front of me. I couldn’t deny that. Huh…” You look up at the sky. “‘I’ll beat fantasy with science.’ That’s what I said after I perfected the revival fluid recipe. Everything that exists or happens has to obey certain rules in order to do so — figuring out those rules is science.”

“Then perhaps that was his last gift to you — one more mystery of the universe for you to solve. One that might take you a good long while,” Tsukasa smiles.

“Yeah,” you smile too. “You might be right.”

“I wish I could have met your father,” Tsukasa says.

“So do I. I think he would’ve liked you.”

You place a palm on Tsukasa’s back. “I’m glad you came back, Tsukasa.”  
  
“Mm, me too.”

He wraps his arm around your shoulders. “Same to you.”

You smile, and look up to the stars. To space. To the moon.

_I’ll be up there someday, Dad. And I’ll go further than you ever did — to the moon! Just you wait. And I’ll figure out the mystery of how I saw you again, too!_

“C’mon, let’s go back,” you say, slipping out of Tsukasa’s hold. “If we’re out here any longer, the crew will think we’re making out.”

Tsukasa chuckles.

“Are you alright?” he asks.

“Yeah. Thanks for coming out here. I feel ten billion percent better.”

The both of you walk back across the deck. You pause to look over your shoulder, at the stars. And you smirk.

_Get excited!_  
  


**Author's Note:**

> 1\. In case you didn't know already, the title of this fic is taken from a (translated) lyric of Yume no You Na. Which I listened to repeatedly while writing this fic. (and cried... a little...)  
> 2\. The part about Tsukasa's parents is mainly a headcanon of mine, but it really wouldn't surprise me if the fisherman in his story from childhood was actually his deadbeat dad. You don't get a complex like that from some random dude being a dick, is all I'm saying.  
> 3\. I realize that Gen being a former Catholic might be a bit of a stretch (I am not Catholic so I can't attest to it either way - I have friends who were though), BUT when I read that one part of the manga, where Gen states that they'll be going to hell, in all seriousness, with a photorealistic image of a Pieta statue? It just came off as odd to me, for a native Japanese person, lol. I probably could've taken it out... but I also liked it, so if you don't, feel free to ignore it. (I also headcanon Gen as being bi)  
> 4\. Not really a note, but my beta-reader linked me [this video,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqtvuzcL84M) where a neuroscientist talks about an experience she had after taking DMT, which is the same chemical that floods the brain when a person dies. Coincidentally she said some of the same things Senku did in my fic :D
> 
> You can find me on twitter [here~](https://twitter.com/DramaticalHeart)
> 
> Feel free to join the Dr. Stone shipping server on Discord! All ships are welcome!  
> We have lots of events scheduled, RP our fave ships, share headcanons, fanart, fic and more!  
> [Click here to join us~!](https://discord.gg/42uwCm4)


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